I know you all remember the scene from the book and the movie where Dr. Gonzo is in the tub and he asks Raoul to throw the radio in the tub while he is listening to the song “White Rabbit”. Here is a little background on the song and its origins and you can even have a listen!

The band that represented the counterculture at large, the concept of the Summer of Love, Haight-Ashburydom, and better living through chemistry in the public imagination across the nation was Jefferson Airplane. Jefferson Airplane's debut show was on August 13, 1965 at the Matrix nightclub in San Francisco. The first performance featured Marty Balin on vocals, Paul Kantner on vocals/rhythm guitar, and Jorma Kaukonen on lead guitar. Signe Anderson, (who sang on Jefferson Airplane's first recording "Jefferson Airplane Takes Off'') also performed. The bass player, Jack Casady and drummer Skip Spence, (who was later one of the original members of Moby Grape) joined the band two months later. Spencer Dryden became the drummer in June of 1966 and Grace Slick joined as vocalist in October of 1966. Kantner brought in the 27-year-old Chicago native Grace Slick (born Grace Wing), whom he had seen playing with Great Society, a band that included her husband, from whom she would soon separate. Great Society was a raga-rock outfit of moderate popularity on the Haight, but their real draw was the powerful voice of Slick, as well has her good looks (she had done some modeling in her early 20's). Great Society was breaking up due to tensions between Slick and her husband, and her desire to work with better musicians; she was the perfect replacement for the excellent-in-her-own-right Anderson. In 1970, an atmospheric live double album of early Great Society recordings from the Matrix became available as Grace Slick & The Great Society: Collector's Item.

Click below to listen to a partial recording of the original version as performed by Grace Slick and The Great Society. On the original recording by The Great Society, the song is less recognizable due to Grace's higher voice before several throat operations that progressively lowered her range.

Slick was with the band when they returned to the recording studio in October 1966, bringing with her two of the Great Society's crowd pleasers, the uptempo "Somebody To Love" (written by brother-in-law Darby Slick) and "White Rabbit", a psychedelic tribute to Alice in Wonderland set to a bolero tempo, which she had written. Both would be retooled into far superior versions by her new band, and would become the band's only top-40 hits. The band performed the first concert for Bill Graham at the legendary Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco in February of 1966.

("White Rabbit" was used in the movie "Platoon". It's playing from a stereo in the scene where Chris takes drugs the first time.)

Their music was capable of great beauty, and scary psychedelia. It was literate and acute. It was experimental, yet accessible. The thrills the Jefferson Airplane provided remain quite thrilling today; anthropology aside, they benefited in their classic period from the stunning three-part harmonies of leader Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, and Grace Slick. Jorma Kaukonen could effortlessly mix country blues picking with folk-rock conventional leads or some of the most cutting, expressive acid rock guitar ever laid to wax. Jack Casady rumbled underneath with a booming bass, bluesy, funky, or staid. Spencer Dryden brought in jazzy drums, a rarity in what began life as a folk-rock band. Balin, Kantner, and Slick were all good songwriters; Kaukonen became one over time, as well.

They were the only band to play all three of the biggest 60's festivals: Monterey, Woodstock, and Altamont (the Dead were present at Altamont, but didn't play). The group spun off two successful subgroups. As many have noted in the past, their career trajectory and musical sound perhaps best mirrored the evolution of the counterculture itself; from wide eyed lysergic innocence, through euphoric optimism, through hallucinatory psychedelicisms, through angry anti-establishmentarianism, through revolution, through drug absorbtion, through dissipation, through back-to-nature, to ultimate commercialism. Jefferson Airplane's timeline of 1966 to 1973 corresponds with the counterculture's perfectly; even Jefferson Starship reflects its day and age.

Grace retired from performing in the 1990s and wrote her autobiography, Somebody to Love?, published in 1998.

A recent picture…

Grace Slick photographed at Woodstock.

And this one, well, just because…I needed to post it.

Jefferson Airplane

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

Aug. 23, 2005: Paul Kantner's "Blows Against the Empire," which includes guest musicians such as Grace Slick, Jerry Garcia, Jack Casady, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Graham Nash, and more, will be released by Sony/BMG Music and will be in stores September 13, 2005.

_________________________________________________________Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -
Wow! What a ride!

Liz

Post subject:

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 11:12 am

JDZ Moderator

Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2004 2:13 pmPosts: 12589Location: The Left Coast

Very interesting!

I prefer Jefferson Airplane's rendition of White Rabbit to Great Society's. It needs to be sung more slowly and with its crishendo to it's peak.

That's a great music site, DITHOT. But for some reason White Bird doesn't work.

_________________________________________________________You can't judge a book by its cover.

The only thing that matters is the ending. It's the most important part of the story.

Grace and Janis were and are two of my favorite artist. I love the pictures. the soundtrack of FALILV also has white rabbit on it. I haven't check out the site yet, but will do it today.

thanks for the flash back man. groovy

Raven tripping to the beat man

_________________________________________________________"In my experience, those who do not like you fall into two categories: the stupid
and the envious."
John Wilmot, the 2nd Earl of Rochester in The Libertine by Stephen Jeffreys

Certainly interesting! Perhaps one day we'll be discussing the Lewis Carroll books as the first psychodelic novels!

_________________________________________________________Work hard, learn well, and make peace with the fact that you'll never be as cool as Johnny Depp. GQ.

Solace in the flood

DeppInTheHeartOfTexas

Post subject:

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 11:55 am

Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2004 10:43 pmPosts: 10377Location: Austin

Raven wrote:

thanks DITHOG!

Grace and Janis were and are two of my favorite artist. I love the pictures. the soundtrack of FALILV also has white rabbit on it. I haven't check out the site yet, but will do it today.

thanks for the flash back man. groovy

Raven tripping to the beat man

Raven, are you calling me a hog??? I loved Janis too. I saw her in concert, she was something else. At the show I attended she took on one of the cops standing close to the stage. Man, those two women had incredible voices!

Endora, you may have a point there!

_________________________________________________________Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -
Wow! What a ride!

Raven, are you calling me a hog??? I loved Janis too. I saw her in concert, she was something else. At the show I attended she took on one of the cops standing close to the stage. Man, those two women had incredible voices!

Endora, you may have a point there!

No DITHOG I mean Depp in the heart of Gonzo!!

yes I love a women singer that can belt them out from the bottom of her guts. Lucky you to have seen Janis in person.

and I think that Lewis Carroll was accused or had been on drugs when he wrote Alice in wonder land????

and where can I see Breakfast with Hunter?

thanks again

Raven

_________________________________________________________"In my experience, those who do not like you fall into two categories: the stupid
and the envious."
John Wilmot, the 2nd Earl of Rochester in The Libertine by Stephen Jeffreys

Liz

Post subject:

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 12:20 pm

JDZ Moderator

Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2004 2:13 pmPosts: 12589Location: The Left Coast

Raven wrote:

DeppInTheHeartOfTexas wrote:

Raven wrote:

thanks DITHOG!

Raven, are you calling me a hog??? I loved Janis too. I saw her in concert, she was something else. At the show I attended she took on one of the cops standing close to the stage. Man, those two women had incredible voices!

Endora, you may have a point there!

No DITHOG I mean Depp in the heart of Gonzo!!

yes I love a women singer that can belt them out from the bottom of her guts. Lucky you to have seen Janis in person.

and I think that Lewis Carroll was accused or had been on drugs when he wrote Alice in wonder land????

and where can I see Breakfast with Hunter?

thanks again

Raven

I love it, Raven. I think this new nickname for DITHOT could catch on.

I didn't know that about Lewis Carroll.

I believe this is the only way you can see BWH--to purchase it from this site:

Grace and Janis were and are two of my favorite artist. I love the pictures. the soundtrack of FALILV also has white rabbit on it. I haven't check out the site yet, but will do it today.

thanks for the flash back man. groovy

Raven tripping to the beat man

Raven, are you calling me a hog??? I loved Janis too. I saw her in concert, she was something else. At the show I attended she took on one of the cops standing close to the stage. Man, those two women had incredible voices!

Endora, you may have a point there!

Okay, I have a huge case of jealousy because you saw Janis live in concert and I have only had the records, tapes and CDs. Of anyone in music I never got to see, Janis is probably at the top of my list. Several years ago when I came out for New Year's I even spent a week in an apartment she used to live in to soak up whatever mojo was left there. I own a silver flask that is supposed to have belonged to her which I acquired on a different visit to SF.

An interesting thing -- Spencer Dryden passed away early this year. He was named after his uncle, Charles Spencer Chaplin. A talented family, both of his parents were also artists, his dad was an actor or director and his mom was a dancer.

Liz

Post subject:

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 1:43 pm

JDZ Moderator

Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2004 2:13 pmPosts: 12589Location: The Left Coast

QueenofKings wrote:

An interesting thing -- Spencer Dryden passed away early this year. He was named after his uncle, Charles Spencer Chaplin. A talented family, both of his parents were also artists, his dad was an actor or director and his mom was a dancer.

Funny ol' world i'nt it? I'm sorry to hear that about Spencer Dryden. Did he remain with the band when it became the Starship?

_________________________________________________________You can't judge a book by its cover.

The only thing that matters is the ending. It's the most important part of the story.

DeppInTheHeartOfTexas

Post subject:

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 1:44 pm

Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2004 10:43 pmPosts: 10377Location: Austin

Okay, Raven, I get it now! Slow I am sometimes!

QueenofKings, of all the concerts I have seen, Janis and Jimi Hendrix are two that stand out among many others. She was an incredible ball of energy, emotion and music on stage.

Thank you for the extra info on Spencer Dryden. I did mean to add to the tidbit that he had passed away. However, I was not aware of his family connections!

_________________________________________________________Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -
Wow! What a ride!

An interesting thing -- Spencer Dryden passed away early this year. He was named after his uncle, Charles Spencer Chaplin. A talented family, both of his parents were also artists, his dad was an actor or director and his mom was a dancer.

Funny ol' world i'nt it? I'm sorry to hear that about Spencer Dryden. Did he remain with the band when it became the Starship?

He wasn't in the Starship, but I kinda think he did play on "Blows Against the Empire" but I'm not quite sure. Going to check on that.

No, I'm wrong because Joey Covington and Mickey Hart played on that one.

ThirdArm

Post subject:

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 4:54 pm

Joined: Tue Jul 06, 2004 4:43 pmPosts: 2999Location: Monterey Bay

Thanks, DitHoT, for this extremely groovy tidbit. The Jefferson Airplane was one of my favorite bands and I have always loved Grace Slick's voice. There was a lot of power behind it and seemed to come from way deep down. Terrific!

With regard to Lewis Carroll, I had read that either he himself or his sister suffered from debilitating migraine headaches. The pain with migraines can be so intense that the sufferer can see colors and hallucinations. His sister also had periods of mental instability. So one theory suggests that the vibrant and unusual images that Carroll had in his book were based on the hallucinations generated by the pain of the migraines.

_________________________________________________________~No doubt the years have changed me.~

Bix

Post subject:

Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2005 6:43 pm

Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2005 2:14 pmPosts: 687Location: Austin, TX

Grace Slick was soooo cool! What a sound she made (well, with a little help from her friends, as well)! But I have to agree with you, QueenofKings, that Janis is at the top of my Wish I'd Seen list. Thanks for that great picture of the two of them, DITHOT. (And, yes, that may be a touch of envious green you see in my eyes, because Jimi is also on my Never Got There list.)

Another great Jefferson Airplane song that I love is Wooden Ships. Just thought of that one for some reason.

_________________________________________________________Live! Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death! ~Auntie Mame